Concentration lapse while driving - Share yours

This is a discussion on Concentration lapse while driving - Share yours within Drive Safe, part of the Road Safety category; Yesterday morning as usual I was enjoying my drive in Baleno & dense traffic means I would enjoy 2-3 extra ...

Yesterday morning as usual I was enjoying my drive in Baleno & dense traffic means I would enjoy 2-3 extra songs. I always keep the volume in the ranges of 15-20 (blaring) when I was traveling alone & that was the case yesterday.

To my left, came a beautiful black baleno with white alloys. Neat looking car which really impressed me. We were traveling parallel to each other for 1-2 kms, give and take one or two car length distances. It was slow moving traffic (10-20-30 kmph) & after few meters I could not find that baleno anywhere near me. I searched for it in the rear view mirror & when I took back my attention to the road, a safari was crying at me not to hit ... It was too late, I did stood on my brake, but bangggggggg. Thanks for the guy behind me who should have kept enough distance

Only on Saturday, I read in this forum how a similar crash left a guy poorer by Rs.1L (radiator/AC condensor/HL/Bumper). I was when those thoughts flashed at me

Safarai driver came out & I immediately apologized him. On hearing such high volume he stared at me & my left hand automatically switched off the set. Since there was no damage for his car, he took off. I was really worried on the extent of the damage & after couple of kms stopped the car to check out. Luckily for me there is no damage at all

Lesson: Never ever take of the eyes from the road even for 1-2-3 seconds especially when there is moving traffic ahead

Not something I am proud off, but did it only to escape the wrath of the other rider. Though I was at 5-6kmph, my bike's front wheel touched the mud guard of another bike. Before he looked around, I zoomed past him and by god's grace the signal turned red and he was stranded there.

I was on a holiday that day & my wifeey says me to drop to office. So as a obdient husband I agree, I was wearing simple rubber slippers & driving my scorpio to drop her. Just moved out of our colony & a little bigger road there is a pair of speed breakers. There is a lof of traffic & a Skoda Octavia is in front of me. One speed Breaker come Skoda goes slow, I go slow ( from 20-30 to 5- 10) & breaker negotiated. Skoda regains speed, I also accelerate. Skoda brakes & climbs the second speed breaker & had to brake as traffic in front is at a halt. I am talking to my wifey & noticing some on the side of the road with my head turned left & THUD , comes a Jolt. What i see is Skoda in the air from rear & travelling ahead . I was stunned. A sardar uncle ( around 60) came out , i got down, apologised, said due to slipper chappals my feet slipped from brake. He looks at the Skoda & all Kudos to germans (inspite of Scorpio) hitting it, no impact. He goes & advises me to be careful. I check No damage. Get in the car my wifey ask , "Where were you looking". I m Lost

Well for me it was two of them; the second one being about ten days ago.

The first one was in the US of A. Living in Atlanta, we left past noon for Houston where my bro lived. It is quite a long drive past 4 states. I began to feel driving fatigue sometime after Mississippi. To shake that, we stopped at a Cafe joint for some strong coffee. Now its was getting past 11pm and my driving fatigue seemed to be climbing on me. But had to reach home that night, no chance of bunking in some silly highway motel along the most racist states. So I told my wife to stay awake and keep chatting with me so that I would be more alive. Turns out somewhere, she returned to her slumber and I was left gaping in the dark. Soon after, i winked off behind the wheel and suddenly jolted by shrieking wife and mother. Luckily, I got my head together and managed to brake the car in the high grasslands just 5 mts short of a highway signboard. Man! that is a nightmare I shall never forget. Imaging a 3 litre Nissan flying off the highway into the marshy grassland at 90-100 mph. The engine bay was coking and had to wait for it to cool. Did not have cellphones on me then. Some passerby alerted the cops and within minutes two red-blue cars showed. First, they did a booze-check, then the racial profiling, then interrogated me like a drug peddler. When I finally got done with their interrogations, asked them if I could contact my insurance co for roadside assistance. They told, we can wire a guy from the nearest village. OK. I said. In about 10-15 mins a fellow showed up with his truck and pulled my car out of the marsh. Got fined 200 bucks and the towing guys charged me 135. I tipped the towing guy an extra 15 ; at least he helped in the situation as opposed to the snooty cops who were fishing to make a fast buck on me.

The second one was just about 10 days ago. The family wanted to go to this handloom exhibition sale in Sanpada junction on Palm Beach. I entered from the Vashi side into the parking maidan which is like a dust mound zone. a car in front of me just finished barking the car so bad that his rear was half on the path way.Waiting to squeeze past the fellow and egging him to consider moving some more inside, I scrapped my bottom in the front and to top it all, the in-laws phone call strikes. Usually the incessant mindless chatter of daily routine stuff, really gets me crazy. True enough, I got irritated with her for entertaining the call at that moment and also for having scrapped the car on a rock below. In the meanwhile, oul pal wanted to reverse and park a little more deeper as I egged him. OK. so moving back should have made me look back and make room for him. Mmm Not that eveing. My irritation had gotten the better of me and i reversed back with some momentum to pull out f the ditch and had not seen the car behind and bang came the noise. The indica behind was hit and the driver was furious. Came out of the car and shouted at me, and I just had to keep my mouth shut for my own good. Luckily my car had touched him gently, so visible significant damage was there on either of the cars.

Both were bad ones and unforgettable. Sleeping behind the wheel is a ghastly nightmare which props up when I feel weary behind the wheel and family safety just shows up and makes me alert.

Was returning from Tirupati to Bangalore. I and my family were in my Getz and a friend and his wife in their Santro. It so happens that the Santro is behind a truck and my Getz is behind the Santro. Now Santro overtakes the truck and I follow the Santro in the overtake maneuver without making sure I have enough road space to complete it. Santro completes the overtake, but while I see an oncoming car and no time to complete the overtake. I brake hard, oncoming car swerves onto the dirt to avoid a collision and carries on. It was much closer than I can express in words. I thank Lord Balaji for saving us. Take a 15 min break and proceed to Bangalore much more carefully.

Learned a lesson which I follow to this day: While overtaking, especially on 2 lane highways, I wait till I have a clear view of the road ahead (no traffic/curves/elevation). Even if it means slowing down from 100 to say 40 behind a slow moving truck and following it thus for some time.

elevation). Even if it means slowing down from 100 to say 40 behind a slow moving truck and following it thus for some time.

i have suffered one--
a biker friend(Sumit Bajaj) after completing his MBA from Kozhikode was on an India trip,
we were nicely ripping our Motorcycles at 90-100kmph and were on our way to calcutta from dalkhola
we were about to enter a town and he was carrying his luggage in saddle bags & tankbags,
he overtakes a bus(80kmph+) on a elevation(it was a rising bridge), i am at half point and suddenly out of no where, i am seeing an Indica(couldn't see earlier because of his saddle bags) gunning for me, brake really hard, but the OE tires were past their best, brushed the Indica lightly, but there was a huge damage to my motorcycle, rim bent, hub broken, else on that day i could have easily clocked 800+kms

and whatever accidents have happened in my case are for being way above the recommended speeds at that given point

one advise though-- wash face, hands, legs and keep a mint flavored tooth paste, using it makes you awake
and if you are feeling asleep, take a break, take a nap, have a tea and then head out

This is in my recent trip to Goa, the car was happily crusing at 100+ on Pune-Kolhapur-Bangalore NH4 highway. I was asking my wife to readout the instructions for navigation, she was not able to pick up the right ones, irritated I just thought of pointing the paragraph. It would have been few seconds, but the car swerved to left & was so close to divider, somehow managed to move away to right in nick of time. That was close shave, I was shaking for next few mins.

The experience was too scary to narrate in few words, none the less the lesson was well learnt.

It was just 8 months since I got my first car (Esteem 2001 VX). But, even though I'm a safe driver, used to take additional precautions in crowded roads.
During the Navraatri season, was out with my wifey n kid to see the Navraatri festival at Thane (w) and due to the traffic parked my car about 1/2 km away from pooja mandap. While returing, there was a gate which was erected on road (which is usually made up of wood and fancy cloth) in the middle. So, small space left on road to go through. Due to this gate and traffic and crowd we are moving slowly. When I was about to go though this gate few guys were walking in the middle of the road (they were not crossing the road, just walking on the road instead of using pavement). I honked and slowed down further. Due to this, cars behind me started honking like anything. I honked 3 timed, revved hard to bring their attention. But, in vein. After passing through that gate, every passing car gave me that dull look and I was really fuming.
I moved further tailgated those guys, honked, went parallel to them, rolled down my left window, and started giving them a peice of my mind.......................
.............then suddenly.....THUD.....
There was a guy walking with his bicycle (hush...what a relief) in front of my car. I just banged on his cycle with about 2-3 km spped ...i guess
I got down my car and aplogized and within this few minutes, those guys my culprits walked away.
Felt bad about my lapse in concentration....felt embarassed too.

^^Dude thats tailgating. Most dangerous and shocking thing that can happen while overtaking. Most people freeze when they see an on coming vehicle in such tight situations. You were super lucky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

And neither should be done. :P
Apples are great for refreshing oneself. Carry them on every long drive and keep having them whenever you feel sleepy.

A big +1 to that. Mobile is generally ignored but all missed calls are promptly returned. SMS can wait. Besides SMS is asynchronous communication; can always blame the network for delayed receipt.

Fruits work wonders when driving. while doing a 7 hr night driving between Ahd-Mumbai, the oranges really helped far better than any red bull or dark chocolates could ever have. Strongly recommend fruits esp the citrus kind to keep the brains from getting woozy behind the wheel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasoo

Two things which really affects my concentration while driving is twiddling with ICE and reading/sending SMS on my mobile.

Yup. when my wife goes thumbing through the HU for radio stations at a speed which most typists will envy, it pretty much is the irritating moment of distraction. Just leave the HU alone and let anything run for 5 mins please, I beg.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheel

i have suffered one--
a biker friend(Sumit Bajaj) after completing his MBA from Kozhikode was on an India trip,
we were nicely ripping our Motorcycles at 90-100kmph and were on our way to calcutta from dalkhola
we were about to enter a town and he was carrying his luggage in saddle bags & tankbags,
he overtakes a bus(80kmph+) on a elevation(it was a rising bridge), i am at half point and suddenly out of no where, i am seeing an Indica(couldn't see earlier because of his saddle bags) gunning for me, brake really hard, but the OE tires were past their best, brushed the Indica lightly, but there was a huge damage to my motorcycle, rim bent, hub broken, else on that day i could have easily clocked 800+kms

and whatever accidents have happened in my case are for being way above the recommended speeds at that given point

one advise though-- wash face, hands, legs and keep a mint flavored tooth paste, using it makes you awake
and if you are feeling asleep, take a break, take a nap, have a tea and then head out

Overtaking on a rising turning bridge is like breaking all rules of safe driving. Almost got into a similar situation on the bridge after Pali bypass en route to Jaisalmer recently. The wife was livid in her criticism and rightly so. Overtaking on a bridge is a no-no. Rising bridge means more power burst will be needed than usual to overtake, wrong gear and you can ask for trouble. Moreover, no visibility on oncoming traffic since you are on an ascent blind and the oncoming guy can be on higher speeds on a plain ahead.
All the ingredients for a disaster.

This was in Feb2007-0845 hrs - I was driving to work and had crossed NTPC Kawas.

Everyone is in a hurry to get to work in time and there is a lot of indiscipline on this stretch of road(Surat-Hazira)

I have a habit of glancing at my rear view mirror every alternate lamp post to decide my manouvers.As I was approaching Reliance,I glanced,but glanced a trifle too long.Suddenly I find myself just 10ft behind a Zen taxi which has completely stopped; I pump the brakes and swerve to the right to avoid hitting the Zen.Partial luck as my Versa's left corner bumps into the Zen's right corner.No frontal damage

Damages:

Zen - small hole in right tail lamp assembly - few scratches on right corner of bumper

My Versa - left headlight mounting bracket broken(headlight intact),scratches to bumper left corner and left fender bent like a V - No damage to bonnet,front bar,grille etc.

The incident happened because a 800 tried to swerve into traffic from the left and the Zen braked hard to avoid hitting it.

The Zen driver started with the usual BC MC ,giving me theories that specky drivers like me can't react in time, but I somehow managed to ward him off and asked him why the 800 got in the way.I told the guy my vehicle had suffered so much damage that the left front door was not opening.Gave him the 800's no. and asked him to go after him - Very lucky I was.

Lesson learnt :

1.glance at your rear view mirror only for a fraction of a second
2.give allowance for others' mistakes and indiscipline

2004 - While driving to office via Ghodbunder road, I was overtaking a truck on an incline, when another truck appeared from the other side. and was quite close as he was on a down-hill. I had no option but to swerve to the extreme RHS of the road and avoid him. I took a good five minutes break to realise what I'd put myself through.

2004/05 - I banged into an Air Deccan "pickup"-like vehicle right outside the Domestic Airport. The dude was stationery and I was busy talking with my girlfriend. Luckily for me, the pickup driver didnt feel anything, and continued on his way, me - took the nearest exit outta there.